That’s right. After basing openSUSE Leap 42.1 on SLE (SUSE Linux Enterprise), Leap 42.2 gets even more source code from the release of SLE 12 Service Pack 2. New technologies such as NVDIMM, OmniPATH, Data Plane Development Kit with openVSwitch are backported for the release. XEN no longer requires its own kernel and is supported by the default kernel. Along with the shared SLE codebase, openSUSE Leap 42.2 gets packages, maintenance and bug fixes from the openSUSE community and SUSE engineers. The 42 series of Leap achieves at a minimum 36 months of maintenance and security updates starting from 42.1.

Server Ready

openSUSE Leap 42.2 is the first Leap release to offer a Server profile as clear option during the installation. With no graphical environment, a Server install of Leap stands ready to do whatever you need from it. Something as simple as running a Web or Mail platform is easier than ever, as are complex projects using virtualization or container technologies.

The Return of the Konqi

Konqi has returned and is in full force. Plasma 5.8 brings a whole new component to openSUSE Leap. As the first Long Term Supported release for Plasma, Plasma 5.8 complements stability-minded Leap users. In unison with Qt 5.6 and Frameworks 5.26, Plasma 5.8 will bring Leap 42.2 users excellent KDE reliability and stability.

The Kernel

The 4.4 LTS Linux Kernel for openSUSE Leap 42.2 improves file system performance and features, including a new balance filter for Btrfs. The default kernel now has paravirtualization enabled. The kernel version also improves cryptography and security support for Trusted Platform Module 2.0 chips as well as adds support for nested Virtualization through KVM. Networking is dramatically improved for IP Virtual Server and IPv6 and of course there is more updates and changes for the multiple architectures.